… and veggies and other matter…

Found a neat little café in Shirley, along West Coast Road, called Shirley Delicious. The place has only been open a year, and should become a destination, well worth the drive from Victoria, along the scenic West Coast Road, to this hidden gem. It is rare to be in a restaurant that is so authentic, where the staff seem genuinely pleased to see customers. The atmosphere is warm and inviting. The food is excellent, fresh, homemade style with delicious flavour combinations, gluten- and dairy-free options.

Yebra is a traditional Lebanese / Syrian dish made by rolling a mixture of meat, usually lamb, sometimes beef, and rice, in grape leaves and cooking in a pot on the stove. This year when my mother was visiting she brought some grape leaves from the family vine, and made some yebra. I asked her to do an experiment: make some with maple leaves from the maple trees in front of our house. Early this spring I read up in some of my books about edible weeds and local edible plants, that maple leaves were edible. One evening for supper I made a salad almost exclusively with young maple leaves. It was delicious. I had to see how the leaves would be cooked, and what better way than with a dish prepard with cooked leaves of another variety: traditional yebra.

The experiment worked. There is a slight difference in texture, because the maple leaves are rougher and furry. For taste, it is so similar. Next spring when the maple leaves are young, I will harvest a bunch and make maple leaf yebra. It will be so much easier instead of doing the annual trek to the old country. This West Coast cuisine, this fusion, could become a favourite Lebanese-Canadian dish.

I stopped at a neat little farmers market today, the Mill Bay Farmers Market, in of all places: Mill Bay. The selection is good, the process are reasonable, and like all farmers markets, I get to meet the people who grow the food.

It is so convenient, to stop on my drive back from Duncan each Thursday. It is easier for me to go there than it is to go to the Goldstream Station Market in my neighbourhood each Saturday.